Big News

2019. BIG NEWS (1929-usa). WITH robert Armstrong, carole Lombard. DIRECTED BY gregory la cava. A nifty atmospheric early talkie crime melodrama featuring brash, tough Robert Armstrong in the role of brash, tough ink-stained wretch Steve Banks. A reporter for a big city newspaper, Banks has lately been passing too many hours in speakeasies and missing out on imporÂtant stories. His latest gaffe is that he is asleep in a drunken stupor just as narcotics are discovered in the apartment of Rose Peretti, notorious “queen of the underworld.” What’s more. Banks is scooped on the story by a rival reporter who just so happens to be his wife. Despite her own career, Marg Banks has been faithfully cooking her mate’s dinners only to find herself waiting up through the night for him to come home from his carousing, she informs him that she is tired of his lifestyle and is filing for a divorce. Meanwhile, Banks’ editor chastises him for his professional lapses. Before you can say William Randolph Hearst, he finds himself out of a job. Banks now must gather all his resources and prove that he is indeed a good newspaperman by getting the goods on notorious speakeasy and narcotics peddler Joe Reno: a scheme guaranteed to lead to some surprising plot twists. The flight is aided by some risquŽ and bristling dialogue and colorful supporting characters (beginning with the newspaper’s overweight, lesbian lonely hearts columnist). Finally, it is fascinating to see Carole Lombard at this point in her career. She was just 21-years-old and at the dawn of her celluloid starÂdom when she appeared in the film in the role of Marg. She even is billed as “Carol,” minus the final “e.” 74 minutes. Newspaper Drama